Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Post 2: Gnarls Barkley - Crazy - ROXY

The videos starts with a while sheet of which black ink blooms into expressive, dynamic forms. These ink forms are a representation of "The Rorschach Test", a psychological test where subjects are shown different ink blots and are asked what they see in them. Primarily this test is to uncover personality traits, emotional functioning or to detect an underlying thought discord. This concept works with the songs lyrics "...I remember when I lost my mind. There was something so pleasant about that place..." and "Does that make me crazy?"

Throughout the video, the ink blotches morph in and out of images of centipedes, birds, bats, spiders, insects, the band members Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse and even a random guy in a bear suit.

Guy in a bear suit.

The video clip was created in 14 days straight with 9 animators working animation, combining and refining the ink forms, narrative flow and face recognition of the stars. It video was designed and created by many people who work for a company called "BLIND". BLIND also create other music videos and televisoin advertising.

So how did they make this video? It was a combination of computer animations and real ink splats, splashes and everything else in-between. Hundreds of images of the ink splats were shot in a studio which were taken by two Australian men. "We had so much fun with it," says Vanessa.

Some of the process of creating the video clip.

Crazy won awards such as The Telly Awards, One Show Design, Broadcast Design single and Design animation Team, The BDA North American Design Award, 2006 MTV Video Music Awards for Best direction and Best Editing. It as also been nominated for Best Group Video and the 2006's MTV Europe Music Award for Best Video.